Thursday, March 22, 2012

As much as my heart aches for the amount of love I have for my little girl, she can really drain every ounce of my being. From her photos you would probably think she's the happiest baby. I don't want to spill her beans- but she is quite the 'needy' baby. By this I mean she constantly constantly needs SOMETHING or she's whining. I'm not talking about a normal baby needing to eat, sleep, or diaper change. She's rarely content for more than 10 minutes at a time- all day long. Some days are better than others. The problem may lie in the fact that she takes horrible naps. 30 minutes are the norm and that's only 2 maaybbbe 3 times a day. So my little 6 month old averages 1 1/2-2 hours of sleep during a 12 hour period. It's not enough. But I've tried everything. Swing, crib, vibrating chair, play-yard, using sound machines, putting her in a dark area. Nothing will keep her asleep for long.

Then there's the nighttime. Lately it has been so.bad. I get up 4-5 times a night to tend to her, usually feeding her 3 times. It's absurd. After her six month check up when the Doctor told me she doesn't need to eat during the night it's just a habit I tried sleep training. The first night I gave her 1 ounce and tried to put her back to bed. 40 minutes later she finally fell asleep--- for 5 minutes---then woke back up saying 'na na na', which means she's hungry. How the heck do I refuse my baby food when she's clearly hungry enough to keep waking up. The next few nights I tried 2 ounces when she first woke up which was fine, except it only made her wake up sooner again. I finally gave up and started feeding her a full bottle so I'd at least get 2-3 hours of consecutive sleep at a time. She wakes up for everything though- a full diaper or needing a burp makes her wake up. Therefore I'm in and out of bed all night long. It's exhausting.

I'm not writing this post to complain- although it feels good to get it out. I would love to her any inputs or similar situations you may have/had. Maybe your advice will work for us, maybe I just need to suck it up. This mommy needs some sleep!

17 comments:

Awe hon...I don't have any advice....but I can tell you...Ellie was JUST like that...for many many months. It's funny how you forget, as a momma, how awful it was once you get past it. Reading this post brought back all kinds of memories from 1 1/2 ago when Ellie was just like that. All I can say is...you will get over this! I promise! (easier said than done huh?) :-)♥ Kyna

Emma Claire has started napping like that as well and you're right, it's exhausting! I am so tired from tending to her nonstop that when she does nap for a short time period I get nothing done! ha! As far as nighttime sleep goes...I to feed EC when she gets up. It puts her back to sleep much quicker than trying to soothe/give a passy.

She sure is cute. Dustyn was like that. He was up and down a lot. Around 7-8 months I finally gave up and had him cry it out. It was the hardest thing ever but after the first night it got better. I heard it doesn't work for every baby. Like I don't think it would for Carsyn, thankfully he is a good sleeper. I hope you get some relief because I am sure it is draining you. At 6 months I think she should be taking 2, 2 hour naps at least.

She really is SUCH a cutie!! :) I'm sorry you're so sleep deprived-it's so rough. Callyn only went through a small patch of rough sleep and it was so hard on me. We did do sleep training and it was soooo hard (on me and my husband, not as much on her, ha!). We only did it going down to bed for the night. The first night she still woke up once in the night and after that she slept 12 hours a night (about 2 months now). She was also taking only 30 minute naps and several weeks later her naps started improving a lot. If you want more info on how we did it, I'd be happy to tell you. I hope you all get some sleep soon!!!

My niece is the same. Once they started feeding her more during the day she slept a little more. & with my daughter I took 3 or 4 days and tried a sleep training. First night when she cried I would go to her help her, hold her, feed her. Next night I would go to her, sing and pat her back, but not pick her up. I would stay there as long as she needed and every time she woke up - without picking her up. Next night she woke up less and I would go near the crib but not touch her and let her know that shes not alone. It seriously was enough for my girl (now 2) and she slept great. Another thing is I did't let her drink her bottle in her crib ever. She'd be held or when she could hold it shed finish it on her own while awake and then I would put her to bed awake and she learned to fall asleep on her own. My son was so different.. he wanted to sleep next to me in bed, that's the only sleep I would get. Hang in there! I'll say a prayer for you both.

Oh, she really is very cute. Sorry to hear that you have such a hard time. Helena (4 months) won't sleep more than twice for half an hour during the day and it is really exhausting. At nighttime she also wakes at least 3 times due to hunger.

The only thing that works for me at the moment is to get someone (like my mum or my hubs mum) to take care of her for 2 hours and I go to sleep. That does fill my energy up a bit.Maybe you could try that...

I'm new to your blog so I'm not sure your history with this, but have you tried swaddling? I know it might be a little late in the game, but I wrote a post about it a while back and got some good comments. That's the only thing I got for ya though - good luck girl!

My sister Kristin has had five children. She blogs at http://from-my-life.blogspot.com/

She has had lots of experience with different personalities. I'm trying to think if she did a blog post on something like this. I can't remember but she has a search feature on her blog and she also has her contact information in the top of the blog. The button says "write". Hope this helps! I'll be praying that you find some answers somewhere and that you get some much needed rest soon.

Girl I'm so sorry! We went through this (kind of) with Bennett around this age. He couldn't put himself to sleep and didn't get nearly enough sleep for a 6 month old. I'm going to tell you something that we did, that was really hard for me but it was the BEST thing we did.Sleep train. Sounds simple and you already brought it up in your post.But seriously.... I think it's so important. We started "sleep training" when Bennett was about 6 months and I gave up quickly because I just couldn't bare the thought of my baby upset, or hungry. So I gave in for a couple more months but when B turned 8 months, my hubby put his foot down and said THAT IS IT, this kid is going to learn. ha ha.So at 8 months, we decided to just let him cry it out. This went on for about a month and believe me, it was excruciating to listen to. I even left the house sometimes because I couldn't take it. But after he got over it... he slept like a champ and he still does. He loves going to bed at night and he loves his naps. Bed time routine (and naptime) became one of the best times of the day. It's a tough thing to go through but worth it because Mama's NEED their rest, too! It's so so important.Okay sorry about the book! ha ha.

Oh myyyyy... she really is SO precious! I don't have any babies, yet, so I don't have any advice! I just want to say that I don't think this post is complaining at all! It is rough that neither of you are getting enough sleep :( I'm so sorry! But I'm glad you posted this so that you can get advice from other momma's and hopefully will find something that works!

aww I hope this passes! We dealt with something similar and I know that all babies are different, but I thought I'd share our experience. Peanut used to whine non-stop and we ended up actually letting her whine for a couple of minutes before attending to her. This actually trimmed the whining throughout the day quiet a bit. We also set up some queues for her when it came to sleeping. Every nap time we followed the same schedule (she loves routines) and always did the same thing - at 930 we would give her a pacifier, change her diaper, and then put her in the crib with her music on (we have one of those electronic mobiles). She would play in the crib or whine for a minute or two and then fell asleep. We did the same thing for her second nap 230-430 and we have a pretty solid bedtime routine that we've come up with over the past year or so. We think that the routine sets her up and lets her know what's coming and settles her down a bit. Ours is also a huge fan of routines, so that might not work for you. And as I mentioned on the instagram post, we did Ferber sleep training for the nighttime.

So sorry Jeska! My oldest was the same way. We finally did hard core sleep training (i.e. cry it out) around 10 months. It took weeks of horrible crying but it worked my son has slept thru the night since. We made sure he was old enough to find and re-insert his own paci before we did this btw. And he was a 30 min napper too until he got older and switched to one big nap, then the finally started sleeping 1.5-2 hours. But that was at like 18 months. Hang in there tired mama! She is super cute, that's for sure!

Oh goodness... I feel for you! Our first baby (Collin) was the same way. Up ALL hours of the night until he was 8 or 9 months old. It was crazy, and I'm NOT a happy person without my sleep! (grouchy face)

It doesn't sound like complaining at all... really! It's so frustrating, and I can't imagine the napping situation. So sorry! It really does sound like you've tried everything. Wish I had some words of wisdom for ya!

Hubby and I are trying for baby #4, and sometimes I think am I too old for this?! Lol! I'm used to getting my sleep now! :-)

She is SUCH A gorgeous baby.... I mean stunning. What a little dollie! Hope you get some Zzzz's soon!

I feel your pain...Landon is a cat napper also, 45 minutes is a long nap. He slept thru the night for a few weeks from about 9pm-5am, but since he hit his 12 week growth spurt he is up twice a night and is very difficult to get back to sleep. It is exhausting. I don't have any real advice but I will say that everytime I huff and puff about getting out of bed I try to remind myself that these sleepless nights are numbered... it will pass, and I need to enjoy those moments as exhausting as they may be, because something about those little eyes looking at me at 3am still melts me. Hang in there!

This time is so hard Jeska, we really struggled when Tom was a baby. I think all babies are different and I think you'll have to trial and error your way through this time, it does eventually get better. What I found worked was putting Tom on a daytime feeding routine, he was just snacking all through the day before and getting hungry. I used a sling a lot during the day when I was doing housework, and went to bed for a nap as soon as he had his daytime nap. I just couldn't do controlled crying, I think it just doesn't work for some kids, especially needy kids like mine was. Good luck and remember that one day this time will just be a distant memory! She really is so gorgeous!